312 
POPULATION OF TEHERAN. 
guests. These story-tellers of Persia have a mixed character, 
something between the bards of antiquity, and the troubadours 
of more modern days. 
On entering Teheran from the Casvin gate, and after proceed¬ 
ing two or three hundred yards into the town, a large open space 
presents itself, full of wide and deep excavations, or rather pits, 
sunk in the earth. Within the shaft of these well-like places, 
and round its steep sides, are numerous apertures, leading to 
subterraneous apartments ; some, the sojourn of poor houseless 
human beings, who, otherwise would have no shelter; others, 
a temporary stabling for beasts of burthen, under the same cir¬ 
cumstances. In these gloomy recesses, we doubtless find the 
village of Teheran, as it was described in the fourteenth century, 
by the Persian writer quoted a few pages before. 
I could not learn, with any degree of precision, the population 
of the town ; but I should suppose, from my own observations, 
that during His Majesty’s winter and spring residence there, it 
may amount to between sixty and seventy thousand souls. Of 
course, I do not calculate in this number the extraordinary in¬ 
flux from the provinces, which draw to the capital at the cele¬ 
bration of the Nowroose. 
The three or four days which intervened between my arrival, 
and the solemnity of the feast, were in part dedicated to ex¬ 
changing visits with the ministers and superior khans. Amongst 
the former, was Mirza Sheffy, the well-known prime-minister 
of his late majesty, and of the present King. Mr. Willock, the 
British Charge d’Affaires, was so good as to accompany me in 
the performance of this expected courtesy, to the residence of 
his Persian Excellency, about four o’clock, P. M. : and a scene 
presented itself, which would have formed an excellent study 
